True Peppermint Shrimp Pregnant.

[cdemeritt]

Day 19: Almost to the half way mark. Somewhere my day count got off a little, but a calander count puts confirms 19 days.
Today I started to try and ween them off of the expencive cyclop-eeze and onto cheaper flake food, as well as I wanted to vary the diet a little. Not to my surprize two of the larger shrimp readily and greedily accepted the flake, and also not to my surprize the smaller two fled from it. I'm sure this will change some in a day or two. Not much else new.

[ChilisREasy]

20 day mark !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! any updates ?!?!

[cdemeritt]

Day 20: Halfway and still four shrimp left. they are growing good. I finially got a couple decent pics. they are still a little blurry, but much better than some.


No real updates other than I'm trying to get them onto flake food. They are taking it, but not as greedily as they do cyclop-eeze. Side note, I feed the leftovers to my main tank, and my Bangaii Cardinal seems to take the leftover cyclop-eeze much more geedily than the flake food.
Truthfully, I'm only just now beginning to think I might have a shot at this. Until recent, I figured that I'd lose on a day or two until gone. I still don't want to get too excited, as there are many days left to go. I really didn't think I would make it this far on only my second attempt.

[VWD]

Good Job on the shrimp,

[cdemeritt]

Morning Day 21: They are so much fun to watch. I just fed them, and one of the slightly larger shrimp grabbed up as many cyclop-eeze as it could hold, about 4 pieces, and was holding them as best it could in overloaded arms (ok, I know really legs). It was the first shrimp I saw this morning, as due to refelctivity and refractivity, and the overall still tiny size, my eyes take a minute or 4 to adjust enough to locate them all, and if they are at the air water line, they can be down right invisible until you can locate them. Well, So I fed the first one, and he's loading up for a party or something, I pause to find the othes, and when I do, I see a smaller shrimp dart over to the one with the cyclop-eeze, and like a good football player, strip one of the cyclop-eeze right out of the first shrimps arms. I guess I'm to the point of not needing to be concerned as much about feeding each one induvidually. I plan on keeping it up, but they seem to be able to fend for themselves much better.
While I still have a ways to go, I think it is safe (yeah right, now I'll jinks myself) to say that so far the dificulty in rasing them isn't as bad as I expected. maybe I just got lucky this time, and the facts are that repeatablity will be the true measure of success. But overall, other than the feeding three times a day, it hasn't been all that much more work than my regular tank maintnance. I've done a couple large WC, but using waste water from the main tank WC. The most money spent was on foods. Apropriate foods are a must. I probably spent far too much on foods, but I wanted to make sure I had enough of the right types. and should have enough now to last several more hatchings, Plus I've had some side benifits, I've been dumping whatever I don't feed the shrimp into the main tank. There are now some very happy fish in my display and a couple more happy corals. my ricordea mushroom that I've had for about 6 years is starting to grow much faster and look much brighter than it has in at least 5 years, I had forgotten how bright the color of it was until now, they seem very happy with the increase in food in the tank, as well as most everything is looking better. So I think I'll be feeding cyclop-eeze daily or at least near daily from now on. My clown and bangaii crdinal have gotten to the point of swimming right up to me and attacking (ok, just the clown attacks) the eyedropper when I put it into the water to feed. I use the frozen bar, and use some water to melt a little off the end. rarely, but sometimes I just dunk the end into the main tank and let a little melt off. Now the clown is too impatient to wait the few seconds for it to melt, and will start eating right from the still frozen bar.

Well thats all for now, will keep you posted.
Chris

[cf77]

Great thread and desriptions, good luck and keep us posted.

[cdemeritt]

Day 21 evening: I have a delma. The parent Peppermint is about to release another clutch. If my math is right, it will either be tonight or tomorrow night. Now what to do with the second hatching? I plan on for the first 5-7 days keeping them in a smaller container, to concerntrate the food, and hopefully increase suriviablity. Then after that, Do I put them in with the older ones? do I try to set up another tank? I have a limited amount of space availble, and a 10g tank for 4 shrimp seems like overkill, but I suspect that the overall watervolume has contributed to the success I've had so far, and really don't want to mess with things too much. I've been trying to figure out the best way to have multiple clutches from multiple spiecies going at the same time, like clowns, cardinals, and shrimp. been racking my head trying to figure out a way to build in a sump system that will allow for a skimmer and better filters than the foam filters, but so far I just don't know. I just hate to think that as I get so close, that something I do to try and keep the second hatching going, could cause the first hatching to fail. I guess at this point I'll just play it by ear and see where it goes. Any thoughts?

[ChilisREasy]

it would be risky to add the new batch with the old one, seems to me the only way to do it is to set up another breeding center.i know sounds like a pretty expensive & costly undertaking,but its a very limited situation.

[cdemeritt]

Day 22: It is a massacre! Those Brine shrimp larve didn't stand a chance. I checked on the young-uns this morning to find that some of the Decapsulated BS eggs had hatched. And as BS do, the clustered together at the brightest point in the tank. Right smack dab in the middle of the "swarm" the were the young peppermints. All 4 were there dining on BSL. These are going to be some fat and happy little peppermints.

These will be known in futher posts as Batch 1. Batch 2 hasn't hatched out yet, but I expect them tonight.

it would be risky to add the new batch with the old one, seems to me the only way to do it is to set up another breeding center.i know sounds like a pretty expensive & costly undertaking,but its a very limited situation

Actually, it isn't so much the cost as the space, only about $30 for another setup. I want to start setting up a large breeding setup, and the room isn't that large. 10g tanks are very limiting, especially if one has only 4 shrimp in each. But I guess the best course of action is to be successful more than once before tinkering too much.

I bought a second 10g, since they are only $9.50 at walmart, and the 5g tanks I'd like are $15.00 at the LFS. The plan is to split the 10g with a glass divider, then I'll have 2 5g tanks. Eventually I'll move the shrimp from Batch 1 into one side,, and batch 2 into the other, then convert that tank into 2 5g tanks as well, so I can have at least 4 growout tanks to work with. slightly concerned that the smaller water volume may make it much more work, but once the foam filters get a good bacterial colony, they should be enough, at least for now. Interestingly however, While once a staple of the LFS, It is amazing to me to see how few places actually stock foam filters now. I guess I will have to order some when I place my order in a month or two for some other stuff.

[cdemeritt]

Day 23: DISASTER!, NEAR DISASTER! diaster? Don't yet know. Ok first the Babies from clutch 1 are all ok and feeding well. As you all know, I am awaiting the arrival of the second clutch of hatchlings. I was expecting them last night, but when I didn't see them this morning I moved the mother shrimps cage (small shower caddy with suctioncups) to open flow to prevent any ammonia build up. When I got home, I found tht the suction cups had failed and dumped the shrimp into the tank. At first thought this wasn't much of a problem, as the tank is nearly empty waiting for me to figure out what I want in it. but after a few minute search, I couldn't find the shrimp. So I checked the bulkhead. I has a bio-star (don't ask) get stuck in the plumbing just behind the bulkhead, and just on top of it was the shrimp. fearing that she was squished, I opened the lines, and removed her from the the pipe. I was very surprized to not only find that she was alive and unharmed, but it looked like her eggs were undamaged too, of course I won't know for sure until they hatch, and she could still die from the shock of it all. Oh what fun we have.

[cdemeritt]

Day 24: not much new. my initial math must have been way off. the eggs still haven't hatched yet for batch 2.
In doing some more research, I came across this artical. http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issu...04/feature.htm

Real interesting. However, I don't doubt his results, but some of the artical seems overcomplicated. Some of what he says I'm not sure about. He states that newly hatched peppermints can be fed newly hatched brines, This may be so, however I didn't witness any signs of BSL predation until several days later. But if it worked for him... I definately got some more Ideas for the future. With luck, I'll be able to produce several shrimp a month, and maybe sell them to LFS for supplies. I don't have the space to put in the large breeding setup discribed, but maybe a smaller system that produces 5-10 or so a month. I'm very interested to see the metamorphose discribed in the artical. That should be within the next 10-15 days.

[Twitterbait]

the last shedding when they become adults is the one where most babies die so good luck.

[cdemeritt]

Day 25: A sad day. The stresses of being run though the plumbing and then moved from tank to tank prove to be too much for the mother shrimp. She didn't make it. I believe it is all my fault. I was concerned that I might be stressing her out, but couldn't just leaver her alone. In a last ditch desperate move to attempt to save the young, I carefully scraped the eggs from her swimmerets in the hopes that if they stay oxygenated, they might still hatch. But I don't hold out too much hope of this. I should know something by Friday. After reading the other artical, I will try to figure out a way to setup that net system to capture the young from a brood tank to eliminate the stresses on the adult shrimp.

Day 26: All is still well with the current zoeae.

the last shedding when they become adults is the one where most babies die

Yes, Barring a major catastophy, such as power failure, my dropping the holding container used during water changes, missed WC or other issue, I have little doubt at this point that they will make it to the metamorphose stage. However will they make it though this stage, That I cannot be so certain about. I don't know, but I have theroies. I suspect that part of the problems most people have at that stage are due to poor water quality. This might not be so, but I'm sure If I do a large number of water changes, say starting at day 30 and though the change period, and about 50% of the water every other day, should keep the water quality very good. Another thought is that even with a small amount of zoeae molting, They can quickly consume the a sizable amount of the iodine required to help the molt? Sound possible? With heavy WC at that time, it should ensure enough Iodine is availible to the Zoeae to help them though. Of course, these are just theroies. 13 days or so until we find out.

[ChilisREasy]

sorry about the mother shrimp, i have my doubts about the eggs hatching,but you never know. good luck !

[cdemeritt]

I hold out no real hope of the eggs hatching, but what's the harm in waiting a day or so t make sure.